Shutting out the Phillies in Citizens Bank Park is always fascinating, especially when the Phils come at you with lineup 2.0, adding Kyle Schwarber and Nick Castellanos to Bryce Harper, Didi Gregorius, JT Realmuto and their whiny first baseman. But when Chris Bassitt talked about “all or nothing” teams, he must have had this team in the back of his mind. Sure, you could always have a lightning strike from them like you had last night in the 8th, but how many games are the Phillies going to play where it’s like this? I’m intrigued to find this out going forward this season.
Tylor Megill was at least the beneficiary of the “all or nothing” lineup, but he probably made a lot of it happen by his own accord. He threw another 5 and a 1/3 of scoreless ball to help the Mets hold the Phillies long enough so that the offense can take the lead. After Robinson Cano struck out to end the first with the bases loaded, it seemed like all of these scoreless innings would be wasted somewhere down the line. But Brandon Nimmo gave the Mets the lead as Joe Girardi kept rolling the dice with Zack Wheeler in his first start of the season, in direct defiance of Joe’s binders. But the “one batter too long” theory, perfected by Terry Collins, actually helped the Mets out with Nimmo’s solo home run.
👋 GONE! @You_Found_Nimmo pic.twitter.com/856yHGqhon
— New York Mets (@Mets) April 13, 2022
Megill was impressive, but the bridge to Edwin Diaz was highlighted by Chasen Shreve and Drew Smith, who I get the feeling is slowly creeping into a very important role in the Mets bullpen. Just like he tried to do with Trevor May last night, Buck Showalter trusted Smith with five outs in the 7th and 8th and this time, it paid off. Smith gave up a double to Castellanos to start his night, but he finished it by striking out Hoskins and Gregorius before pitching a perfect 8th. I truly think he’s stretching out his relievers to be more than one inning pitchers so that he can get more out of them from game to game and account for longer games. It worked with Smith. Maybe not so much with May but his injury seems like it isn’t going to keep him out too long. If this works long term, the Mets are truly going to have a leg up on the rest of the league. And the best part about it is that stretching out these pitchers means that he’s putting them in a position to win or lose the game. When all these guys are just going one inning, it puts pressure on managers to make the right move at the right time. Stretching out these guys will not only put them in a position to win or lose the game, but it’s also going to minimize the worst aspects of the three batter rule. If this works …
A man smarter than me recently said: “Everyone hates Edwin Diaz until he’s not around.” He was around for the ninth inning tonight. It didn’t go completely to plan as an infield single and a hard hit fielder’s choice weaved in and out of Diaz striking out the side, but the final strikeout was a thing of beauty. As Rhys Hoskins was up as the winning run, Diaz struck him out by pulling the string to various degrees to make Hoskins look like the fool that he is, and the strikeout ended the game. After Hoskins was so involved in last night’s loss, I’m not sure I would have been able to handle him being a hero twice in a row. But thankfully, Diaz took care of business and the Mets are back on the right track. Hopefully Max Scherzer vs Aaron Nola will be a beaut, and that it will fall the way of the good guys. Also hopefully, the all or nothing meter will be set to “nothing” again.
Today’s Hate List
I’m going back to Alec Bohm. But the only hate is that I Hate what I’m about to say. But I have to give credit to Phillies fans.
No doubt you heard yesterday about Bohm’s “I hate this f^^^ing place” utterance (which was my entire Hate List yesterday) after the Philly crowd gave him a sarcastic cheer after fielding a ball cleanly on the heels of his three errors. What sucks is that it was a line that he told his teammate in close proximity and probably should have never had to answer to it. Who would have heard him? But he had to answer for it because the Twitter lip readers figured it out. Now, he could have made up a story about how “that’s not what I really said”. And people might have believed him as people actually did think he said something else. Instead, Bohm owned up to it:
Does Alec Bohm actually "hate this place?"
Doesn't sound like it.
"Look, emotions got the best of me. I said it. Do I mean it? No. It's a frustrating night for me, obviously. … These people, these fans, they just want to win. … I don't mean that." pic.twitter.com/Q7VZ2aBoAg
— NBC Sports Philadelphia (@NBCSPhilly) April 12, 2022
Admitting saying that you hate the city you play in, when it’s Philadelphia, is beyond gutsy. I give Alec a lot of credit because the reaction to it from the Phillies fans could have gone horribly wrong. Instead …
Pretty awesome ovation for Alec Bohm as he steps up to the plate 👏👏👏 pic.twitter.com/iSpNyTYUMn
— NBC Sports Philadelphia (@NBCSPhilly) April 13, 2022
I love it. And I hate that I love it. And I still hate Rhys Hoskins.
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